Charles the Crusader

Charles "the Crusader" (1234-12??) was an English crusading noble who took part in the Northern Crusades. A wealthy noble, he arrived in Eastern Europe with a small army and sought to fulfill his crusading vows under the banner of the Knights Teutonic. The greater his victories, the more donations he gave to the Teutonic Order.

Biography
Charles was born into a wealthy family in England, and had a religious fervor. His father Edmund was a rich noble from Pevensey, and he was educated in a cathedral. Charles dreamed of helping out the servants of God, which he thought were the crusaders fighting in the Baltics. He raised forces with his own money, and set out on ships to assist the Christian armies.

He arrived in Eastern Europe in 1254 with a small crusading army and sought to fulfill his crusading vows under the banner of the Teutonic Order. His fleet landed near the city of Palanga, which was owned by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After a siege that lasted until 1255, he captured the settlement, and he developed a habit for massacring the pagan inhabitants of the cities that he captured. In 1256 he captured Siauliai and exterminated the populace, but he failed to take Kaunus in 1261.

Afterwards, the brutal Charles withdrew from Kaunus, licking his wounds and preparing to continue on with his campaigns against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Livonians.